Canine Distemper Virus

Canine distemper virus (CDV) belongs to the genus Morbillivirus, family Paramyxoviridae, along with phocid distemper virus, measles virus, rinderpest virus, peste-des-petits-ruminants virus, and cetacean Morbilliviruses [1]. CDV is the causative agent of a severe systemic disease in dogs characterized by a variety of symptoms, including fever, respiratory and enteric signs, and neurologic disorders. Clinical disease caused by CDV has been known for centuries and is described unequivocally in books of the seventeenth century, reporting large epidemics all over Europe [2]. The introduction of the modified-live (ML) CDV vaccines in the 1950s and their extensive use has greatly helped to keep the disease under control [3,4]. Notwithstanding, the incidence of CDV-related disease in canine population throughout the world seems to have increased in the past decades, and several episodes of CDV disease in vaccinated animals have been reported